Knitting News
Updated May 30 2005
Youngsters find rewards when knitting needles start to click
Inside Bay Area - May 30 2005
Twenty sets of little hands get busy with knitting needles while the young knitters spin stories as colorful as the yarn spreading out in front of them.
Knitting Pretty
Santa Cruz Sentinel - May 29 2005
You’ve seen them at the bus stop, in local coffee shops and waiting for the kids at soccer. Needles in hands and skeins in laps, they produce scarves, handbags, sweaters and bikini tops. The activity is familiar — an image of Grandma whipping up a pair of those knobby slippers or a droopy-shouldered cardigan comes to mind — but these knitters are no Grannies. They are younger, more active and not the least bit embarrassed to exhibit their passion — some say addiction — in public.
Anarchy and Apron Strings
City Pages - May 25 2005
While this trend might sound like a right-wing conspiracy engineered by disciples of Dr. Laura, rest assured that this isn't a Republican thing--and it's certainly not about the care and feeding of husbands. In fact, the New Domestic movement couldn't have sprung up any further from the cultural right. Suddenly, baking, gardening, sewing, and especially knitting are all the rage among educated, ultra-liberal young women, and feminist rags like BUST aren't alone in catering to this crowd. The ancient rituals of tending to hearth and home have suddenly acquired hipster cachet, and crafting circles are popping up like prize-winning hydrangeas all over the Twin Cities.
Knitting Initiative Crosses Borders
Community Newswire - May 26 2005
"We even have one of the child stars of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium planning to take his new-found knitting skills back into the green room after his Gran taught him using our Big Knit booklet."
Knitting's appeal slipping
The Mercury - May 23 2005
Knitting gets more hi-tech than a ball of wool and a couple of needles, but the women who form the Hobart Machine Knitting Group say the younger folk are not signing up.
This ain't your grandma's ball of yarn
Houston Chronicle - May 23 2005
What do you call a group of 20- and 30-somethings who gather en masse to create colorful items, swap tips and mingle?
"Loosely knit," quipped 26-year-old knitter Lisa Beckham."
"You're so knotty!" replied 23-year-old fellow knitter Valerie Staten. "See, if we didn't have a knitting group we would make those stupid jokes to everyone."
Knitting it back together
The Charleston Gazette - May 22 2005
Losing a home and studio to fire is enough to tie anyone up in knots. When your business is knitting, and you lose all the yarns, patterns and equipment that are the tools of your trade, the loss is particularly devastating.
Margy Mills, a juried Tamarack fiber artisan, lost her home and nearly all the possessions inside when her 100-year-old house and studio burned to the ground in January. She produces her own hand-dyed, natural-fiber yarns and knitwear for her business, Yarn By Mills.
Unique yarns specialty of Knit-Wits
Tribune Review - May 22 2005
Recently I visited the Knit-Wits shop near Greensburg to see the unique yarns I had been hearing so much about at the Unity Township neighborhood meeting of the American Sewing Guild. I was not disappointed; the shelves of the yarn boutique are stocked neatly with a large variety of specialty yarns. I felt like I had entered a candy shop and didn't know which piece to pick up first.
Art of knitting weaves its way through history
Rocky Mountain News - May 21 2005
Knitting dates back to about 400 B.C. We know this because knitted wool socks were found in an Egyptian tomb that dated back to that century.
The English called it "cnytton" in the 15th century. During that era and into this one, knitting has been a popular way of making all sorts of things, including materials for interior design. Originally, knitting needles were formed from bone or wood, then the Spanish used steel. An Englishman, William Lee, made the first knitting machine.
Knit and purloin
Hamilton-Wenham Chronicle - May 19 2005
A woman has confessed to having shoplifted $450 worth of yarn from the Cranberry Fiber Arts shop during two separate visits to the Hamilton retail store in February. She recently admitted to Hamilton police that she stole a score of high-end skeins to sell them through Internet-based Ebay, the equivalent of an electronic yard sale, auction house or pawn shop.
The hit list: At her knit's end
The Sacramento Bee - May 16 2005 (registration required - try bugmenot.com)
This is a cautionary tale of a craft gone too far. Frances Trotter, a resident "fiber artist" at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, led a team of volunteer knitters recently in creating a car cozy for a Volkswagen Bug.
It took about seven miles of yarn and fake fur accents. But the car was bundled up in time for a debut at the Art Car Parade on Saturday in Houston.
Back in the loop: New generation tends to its knitting
North Country Times - May 14 2005
"This is not Grandma's knitting," said Heather Robertson, 25, the owner of Noble Knits. That much is obvious just by looking around her store. Aside from the young clientele, what stands out most is the yarn: Bold, bright and in your face, this is definitely not the yarn of yore. Fuzzy, glittery, funky and chunky yarns have replaced the generic yarns preferred by earlier generations.
Shear patience
The Citizen - May 9 2005
The Michaelises began their alpaca adventure in 1999 after they moved from Albany for Ken's job with the state Department of Correctional Services. Thirty animals later, including a baby named Lady Elizabeth who is bound for the show ring, the couple are knee-deep in all things alpaca.
Polly is beginning to knit end products with alpaca yarn, which is much softer than sheep's wool. She hopes to get into weaving soon, as well. The couple also import alpaca fleece clothing and sell yarn from their own herd.
Knitting trip around Japan ties up more projects
The Japan Times - May 7 2005
One Japan-related project attracts attention at "Knit 2 Together: Concepts in Knitting," organized by the U.K.'s Crafts Council and on show in London until May 15, from where it will set out to tour Britain as part of the "Knitting and Stitching Show 2005." Celia Pym, a Harvard art student interested in "measuring journeys and marking space," knit her way across Japan in a trek inspired in part by the novels of Haruki Murakami. Celia Pym relates through memorabilia and a 24-meter-long length of blue knitting how in 2001 she knit and purled her way around the Japanese archipelago -- a trip that oddly (considering she is English) began in Cambridge, Mass.
It's not all girls and knitting for Clarke (This one's for you - dad and Luke!)
F3 News - May 6 2005
British F3 International Series Double R Racing star Dan Clarke has revealed he's been been getting race tips from far from conventional sources, including the likes of comedian Johnny Vegas and singer Cliff Richards...Clarke, who lists his hobbies as 'girls and knitting,' scored a podium in his first ever race in Formula 3, not a bad effort for a new driver in a brand new team's first race.
Solar sock factory makes good yarn
The Independent - April 29 2005
A recent cloudless week meant the 84 solar panels on his workshop roof produced a maximum 10 kilowatts an hour, enough power to light a hundred 100W light bulbs. And what does he use the power for? Why, to run his spinning and knitting mill, of course...
Dr. Melamed, a Hudson urologist, describes his spinning and knitting as using a product of the 200-acre Angora goat farm-Buckwheat Bridge Angoras-he and his wife operate. He may be the only farm owner in the region to operate a solar powered spinning and knitting mill.
All caught up with knitting
The Wichita Eagle - May 5 2005
Here's a little family yarn that's spinning out of control in a fifth-grade classroom at Spaght Academy: Laurie Mercer's mother and aunt have come in to teach the students how to knit a scarf for their mothers for Mother's Day.
OK, so the surprise is out. Fifth-grade boys knitting one and purling two. Ten- and 11-year-olds staying inside from recess on heavenly spring days to add row to row of warm, colorful fibers. And calling it cool.
Knitting her own future
The Oregonian - May 5 2005
Although she had learned to crochet just a few days before, Tawni Burke was skipping doilies and instead working on a twin-size blanket. Not for herself, but as a gift for a friend.
Now, after only a few months of knitting and crocheting, she's already known for her handiwork -- and the way she passes on the results to others. Since Christmas, when she first learned to knit so she could make a scarf for a friend, Burke has been making scarves and hats to give to the Good Neighbor Center, a Tigard homeless shelter.
Club shares purls of wisdom
The Middletown Press - May 1 2005
"Knitting is in," said Gretchen Jamieson, who was leading the group and assisting anyone who was having problems with their projects. The group is for anyone 8 years old and up, and for any level from beginner to expert, she said. "Mostly it’s beginners."
